The play-ground occupied the northwestern angle of the public square, and formed an oblong segment of it, of rather irregular shape. It was made distinct from the rest of the square by one or two low embankments or terraces; in its centre stood, on a low circular mound, a four-sided pole or pillar, sometimes forty feet high. A mark fastened on its top served at appointed times as a target to shoot at with rifles or arrows. Around the pole the floor of the yard was beaten solid.
The play-ground, tă′dshu in Creek, was called by the white traders chunkey-yard, chunk-yard, from the principal game played in it. This game, the chunkey- or tchungke-game, consisted in throwing a pole after the chunke, a rounded stone which was set rolling upon its edge. Cf. Adair, Hist., p. 401. 402. There was also a sort of ball play in use among the Creeks and many other Indian tribes, by which a ball (púku) was aimed at an object suspended on the top of a high pole, or, as it is played now, at the top of two twin poles (puk-ábi), called sometimes "maypoles." In summer time dances were also performed in this yard, and Bartram saw "at the corner of each farther end a slave-post or strong stake, where the captives that are burnt alive are bound."[115]
THE ANNUAL BUSK.
The solemn annual festival held by the Creek people of ancient and modern days is the púskita, a word now passed into provincial English (busk); its real meaning is that of a fast. In the more important towns it lasted eight days; in towns of minor note four days only, and its celebration differed in each town in some particulars. The day on which to begin it was fixed by the míko and his council, and depended on the maturity of the maize crop and on various other circumstances. Its celebration took place mainly in the "great house" of the public square, and from Hawkins' description, who saw it celebrated in Kasiχta,[116] we extract the following particulars:
In the morning of the first day the warriors clean the area of the great house and sprinkle it with white sand, at the time when the black drink is being prepared. The fire in the centre is made by friction, very early in the day, by a ministrant especially appointed for the purpose, called the fire-maker. Four logs, as long as the span of both arms, are brought to the centre of the area by the warriors, and laid down end to end, so as to form a cross. Each end of this cross points to one of the cardinal points of the compass. At the spot where the logs converge, the new fire is kindled and the logs are consumed during the first four days of the púskita. The women of the turkey gens dance the turkey-dance, pínua opánga, while the powerful emetic pā′ssa is being brewed. It is drank from noon to mid-afternoon, after which the tadpole-dance, tokiúlka opánga, is danced by four males and four females, who are called the tokiúlka or tadpoles. In the evening the men dance the dance of the híniha: híniha opánga, and continue it till daylight.
The second day begins with the performance of the gun-dance, ítch'ha opánga, danced by females about ten o'clock in the forenoon.[117] At noon the men approach the new fire, rub some of its ashes on the chin, neck and belly, jump head foremost into the river, and then return to the great house. Meanwhile the females prepare the new maize for the feast, and the men on arriving rub some of it between their hands, then on their face and breast, after which feasting begins.
The third day the men pass by sitting in the square.
On the fourth day the women rise early to obtain a spark of the new fire; they bring it to their own hearths, which were previously cleaned and sprinkled with sand, and then kindle their fires on them. When the first four logs are consumed, the men repeat the ceremony of rubbing the ashes on their chin, neck and belly, and then plunge into water. Subsequently they taste salt and dance the long dance, opánga tchápko.
The fifth day is devoted to the bringing in of four other logs, which are disposed and kindled as aforementioned, and then the men drink ássi.